Pushing on the Accelerator

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Pushing on the Accelerator

State Standards:

GSE PS3 (7-8)-8 - Motion

Students demonstrate an understanding of motion by…
  • 8c differentiating among speed, velocity and acceleration

National Standards:

Context of Lesson:

This lesson builds directly off of the previous lesson and starts the final topics of this unit. At the end of the last lesson, the students thought about non-uniform motion and changes in velocity. They saw in the bicycle lab that velocity isn't always constant, as hard as you may try. In this lesson, students will learn about acceleration with a brief set of notes and demonstrations. Following that, students will conduct investigations to explore acceleration. This hands-on activity will give students a concrete understanding of the concepts that they can connect with. Students will be manipulating objects in situations that they are familiar with to gain a better understanding of acceleration. Students have not yet been introduced to the question of what causes motion or what fundamental action results in the change of motion. This lesson and the following lessons will serve as a very important foundation for learning about forces after this unit.

Opportunities to Learn:

Depth of Knowledge

Webb level one
  • Perform a clearly defined set of steps
  • Represent in words or diagrams a scientific concept
Webb level two
  • Collect and display data

Prerequisite Knowledge

  • Velocity
  • non-uniform motion
  • Position vs time graphs

Plans for Differentiating Instruction

  • Students will be introduced to acceleration in a variety of ways.
    • I will present the information in brief notes.
    • I will include demonstrations.
    • Students will watch a video.

Accommodations and modifications

  • There are no modifications necessary for this lesson.
  • Students that require extra assistance will be given a modified graphic organizer to take notes.

Environmental factors

  • This class will all be done in whole class discussion.
  • The desks will be arranged in rows.
  • The TV will be placed in front of the classroom.
  • Students that cannot see are allowed to move to better see.

Materials

Objectives:

Students will complete a graphic organizer to
  • represent scientific concepts in their own words and diagrams.

Instruction:

Opening:

Warm up: What is acceleration?
  • Share ideas- Students will have ideas of what acceleration means by their experiences, but they are not expected to come up with a definition.
  • Misconception- Acceleration means something is getting faster.
  • Objects in motion around us are rarely traveling at a constant velocity.They are usually accelerating.

Engagement:

Activity one:
  • Teacher gives brief notes on acceleration and free fall (linked above)
    • Some important points on ways motion (velocity) can change:
      • An object at rest can start to move
      • An object in motion is induced to move faster
      • An object in motion can be slowed or brought to rest
  • Teacher performs demonstrations between.
  • Teacher gives students practice problems.
  • The students fill out a graphic organizer.
Activity two:
  • The students watch a video on acceleration.
  • During the video, students answer questions given to them by the teacher.

Closure:

  • Teacher brings the lesson to a close with five minutes remaining.
  • Teacher asks the warm up question again. Hopefully this time students will have a better understanding.

Assessment:

  • Formative assessment of student responses
  • Completion of graphic organizer and movie questions.

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